Thank you to The Container Store for partnering on this blog post and for gifting this Elfa Classic closet, closet accessories and installation. As always, all opinions are authentic and my own!

I couldn’t be more excited to bring you into my cloffice today! In case you don’t know what I mean when I say ‘cloffice’, it’s a closet office  🙂

When we moved into our home, S and I made a deal. He got the master closet walk in all to himself and I got one entire spare bedroom to myself! S and I have lived together for six years, so he did his time walking all over my shoes and piles of laundry that I don’t put away all that quickly. While I’m an organized person, I’m the first to admit my car and my closet go haywire sometimes and morph into ‘organized chaos’ lol.

Now that we have space in our first home, I don’t want organized chaos.. I just want organization 😛 So in order to have that, I took on optimizing my closet space with The Container Store.

And it’s the perfect time to share because The Container Store is having a huge closet sale through October 11. You can receive up to 25% off your closet needs! Note that Elfa isn’t on sale, but lots of other closet pieces are.

You may remember this blog post from the fall where I organized our pantry! If you have a small pantry, you’ll want to check it out since I give tips on maximizing your space. This was my first home organization project and I quickly learned that I’ll never be more excited about walking through the doors of any other retailer than The Container Store. If you love organizing, you know what I mean 😉 

Today I’m so excited to share how I optimized my closet space with products all from The Container Store!

Here are my closet dimensions:
Closet Width – 87 1/4”, Height – 95”, Depth – 26”
Closet Doors – Width across – 29 3/4 “, Height – 80”

OPTIMIZING CLOST SPACE WITH THE CONTAINER STORE

So to really dive into this, let’s first chat about the ‘before’. This is absolutely not organized chaos, just straight up chaos. You also can’t see that I have piles of clothes on my cloffice floor. Eeek. 

PAIN POINTS WITH CURRENT CLOSET

• I needed space for folded clothing.  I was using half of the bureau in our master and the top/bottom of this closet which, as you can see, wasn’t working out.
• I needed the hanging rack height or layout adjusted. You can see so much dead space above the top shelf, plus the height makes it so that accessing the bottom area was hard.
• I needed matching hangers that held clothes on and didn’t damage them. The mash up of different hangers accumulated over the last decade was overwhelming. On top of them looking bad, they had poor performance too. Most would allow my tops to slip off or would cause pulling on the shoulders, hence the bottom of my closet.
• I needed many more things I own in this closet to have my wardrobe organized in one room. Additional items that were strewn throughout our house that I needed in this space: shoes, sweatshirts, sunglasses, sweaters, jewelry, swimsuits, cover ups, purses, hats, scarves, bras, camis, jumpsuits, activewear, loungewear and MORE! That’s a lot more items to add into a space that is already overflowing!

1. DECIDING ON AN ELFA CLOSET
   Before diving into the design process and outcome, I wanted to take you through how I decided on the Elfa closet system to begin with.
   
   Elfa is the original custom shelving and drawer system and is sold exclusively at The Container Store. Your closet literally becomes a custom style for your needs. I also liked that you have room to grow. Unlike other solutions, you can quickly and easily adjust your layout with different features>
   
   Plus, it’s much more affordable than other custom closet options out there! You also get free design service which I’ll chat about in a minute.
   
   Of the Elfa options, I selected the Elfa Classic. The main reason was the drawers. I liked how the Classic option had perforated drawers which holds me accountable to keep the space tidy. There are also the Elfa Decor options which has traditional wooden drawers and also comes in two additional colors in case you weren’t looking for white.
2. THE DESIGN PROCESS
   To get the project rolling, I provided The Container Store Elfa Specialist with my closet dimensions, current pain points and pictures of my space. I worked chose to work with the specialist virtually, but you can also go in store if that is your preference.
   
   After providing those details, I received a mock up that made my little organizational heart so happy. I sat on the mock up for two days to map out where my belongings would be stored in the layout and to also ensure nothing else came to mind for tweaks. I actually didn’t have a single adjustment! That is how much the Elfa designer nailed it. So we moved forward with installation and accessory selection. 
   
   
3. ORGANIZATIONAL ACCESSORIES
   Now that I had my closet mocked up, I selected my closet accessories to optimize storage! You’ll see later in the blog post, I  opted for pieces like velvet hangers, skirt hangers, lucite clutch organizers, acrylic jewelry organizers, shelf dividers.. all things that would maximize my new set up! If you need some additional guidance, the in store designer or an associate can help you.
   
   
4. INSTALLATION DAY!
   A two person crew was scheduled to set up my new closet. Prior to them arriving, I removed all my clothes from the closet and room. This was a great opportunity to donate LOTS of clothes!
   
   While going through my clothes, I placed relevant items together.. like a pile of work pants, skirts, blouses, etc. Since I already had my new hangers, I started hanging the clothing that would be put back into my closet so once it was set up, I just plugged it all back in since we had visitors in a couple days needing the room all my clothes were temporarily in.
   
   The installation took about two hours which was really quick! Once complete, they removed all the trash from packaging and we walked through my new closet together and I started filling it up.
   
   
5. THE END RESULT.. MY NEW ELFA CLOSET!
   OH BOY! I cannot believe that this is my closet. Before my Elfa closet, getting ready for the day was stressful and chaotic since my wardrobe and accessories were all over the house and hidden in my closet.
   
   Now? Getting ready everyday is SO FUN!!! I love not only being able to easily find what I want to wear, but also just rediscovering pieces I forgot I owned since everything is in plain sight 😛 I love having this organized, beautiful little area in my cloffice! 
   
   If you’re going to install an Elfa closet, I want to walk though my favorite parts with you:

MY FAVORITE ELFA CLOSET FEATURES AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACCESSORIES

This is more of a design feature, but I LOVE how the Elfa designer broke up the hanging rack into two sections. This is an easy way to break up my wardrobe and result in even more organization.

I know that all my jackets and blouses go on the left and all my skirts and dresses go on the right. If one rack gets full, I know what items to sort through and donate. 

Also these velvet hangers are amazing! All my blouses, tank tops and dresses stay put, even silk! Plus, I now feel comfortable hanging my knits because these gentle hangers won’t stretch out the shoulders. Before my knits were stashed in a bureau and I never saw them. I LOVE that a simple switch of hangers can allow you to get more use of your closet space.

You’ll find an array of acrylic organizational pieces in my closet. I love that the clear material allows the pieces to be very subtle! 

• Clutch organizer: I LOVE this! Right when I saw my closet mock up, I knew I’d store my clutches and crossbodies on the right hand shelf. I grabbed two of these acrylic clutch organizers which has made my life so much easier. I love handbags, but prior they were stowed all throughout my house! Now I know right where they are.
• Large modular drawer: I actually owned these prior to my closet redesign. You can see all about them here in an OG blog post! I have four of these large modular drawers on the shelf to the left. I store sunglasses in one and jewelry in the other three. I also store my make up on my vanity in these! They are really high quality. I’ve owned all mine for 3+ years.
• Shelf divider: Remember when I said in my previous closet lay ut, there was a bunch f wasted space? Well not anymore! The entire closet was raised up and now with the shelf on the top, I stack some year round sweaters and crewnecks. To organize them, I use these acrylic shelf dividers. I love that they have a bonus little hook on the end so you can hang outfits you pull. See the images below that better explain what I mean!

The other area that is a huge help are the Elfa drawers. I mentioned above that I opted for the ‘Classic’ option so that I kept myself accountable for keeping them organized since you can sorta see what’s inside. Mine are the Medium Mesh 2 drawers so they are a great width and depth!

And guess what? Every item in these drawers weren’t in my overflowing closet before. How amazing is that?!

• Drawer 1: camis and bras
• Drawer 2: pants
• Drawer 3: shorts
• Drawer 4: bikinis, cover ups and jumpsuits

An area I knew I was going to optimize was my doors! I have french doors on this closet and they are really large, leaving a great surface for more storage.

In our pantry, we used the Elfa door racks and it’s a total game changer! You can customize how it is hung, the bucket materials, color and more to really fir your needs.

You know what’s crazy? After adding in so many pieces that weren’t even in my overflowing closet before, I still have so much space to grow with. You’ll see some of my door bins are empty and I know in the coming months I’ll find things to put in them.

On the left door, I’m storing:

• sports bras, casual knit tshirt bras, work out tops, athletic shorts, work out leggings, casual leggings and yoga pants. All of which wasn’t in my closet before!

On the right, I have:

• baseball hats, bandanas, neck ties, visors, scarves and even my backstock of hair products from Living Proof

I really enjoy having my clothes and products in an area like this closet door rack because they are in sight, not lost in the sea of my bureau. It has made getting ready so much more efficient!

Now let’s chat SHOES! Due to nature of shoes, organizing them can be a challenge. I keep all my tidy shoes in my closet and all my shoes meant for work or extreme weather [yard sneakers, LL Bean boots, Ugg boots, Hunter rain boots etc]. 

The Elfa designer mocked up three sliding shelves that store about five pairs of shoes each! I then have a bin on the bottom right that has other shoes that I don’t reach for as often or are on their last leg 😆 

The top shelf is another key feature as I’ve noted a few times because it not only organizes my year round crewnecks, but also my large handbags and totes! Having all my handbags stored in one area makes styling outfits so fun!

If you’ve made it this far wow! You my love organization as much as I do!

What do you think? Does your closet need some organizational help!? Remember that The Container Store is having a huge closet sale through May 19 and you can shop it here. Xo Mindy

Thank you to The Container Store for partnering on this blog post and for gifting this Elfa Classic closet, all closet accessories and installation. As always, all opinions re my own. 

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